


Burning Bright

by hanzo-lo (Xireyna)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Eventual Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2018-08-10 08:05:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7836865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xireyna/pseuds/hanzo-lo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He burns, oh he burns blindingly bright like the sun on a scorching Santa Fe day, but nobody would ever witness his radiance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is PRIMARILY a slow burn mchanzo fic.  
> To those who came here because of the genji/jesse tag, please know that relationship won't be my main focus. Jesse and Hanzo are flame bonded to each other.

Long ago, humanity was faced with a crisis. It is said that humanity had gone through a period of widespread infertility and the population began to plummet rapidly. The cause of this incident is unknown and has always been unknown. Researchers dwell on the idea that perhaps humans were simply incompatible with other humans. Some wonder if a disease had affected the race, and some other researchers ask if humans had simply hit carrying capacity and this was nature’s way of thinning the herd. Regardless of the cause, this period was brought to a halt when the first flame mark appeared on someone’s body and the phenomenon began to spread until every single human had a mark.

According to mythology, humans originally had four arms, four legs, and a head made of two faces. At this time, humans were strong, strong enough to threaten to conquer the gods. Zeus would then split every human in half as punishment for their pride, but the humans were miserable. They wouldn’t eat and would instead die while wallowing in their own sadness, so Apollo would sew each human up and fix their bodies, so to speak. Each human would then only have one set of genitalia and would forever long for his or her other half. Apparently, when the two halves would find each other, there would be an understanding of each other, that they would feel unified and would no know greater joy than the unification.

Some specialists in mythology would go as far as to say the marks were the gods attempting to make up to the humans, as widespread worship of the gods would soon stop. However, nobody knows the true cause of the marks appearing, aside from the fact they were inadvertently caused by the infertility. All that is known about the origins of a flame mark is that they are named as they are due to how they appear. On the first birthday of every human, the mark appears in a violent burst of flame, thus the name _flame mark_.

These flame marks lead people to their most compatible partner, and as some say, to their other half. This compatible partner is called a flame. Once someone is within a certain distance of their flame, their mark begins to burn and glow against the skin, a clear display that their flame is near. However, there have been instances of people losing their mark, and those who lose their mark also lose all ability to tell who their flame is.

Jesse McCree is one who has been unfortunate enough to lose his mark, and no exception has been or will be granted to the rule of being unable to tell who his flame is.


	2. Chapter 2

The day Hanzo found his flame was also the day he lost him.

On that day, the sun on Hanzo’s hipbone shone so brightly that it could almost be seen through his clothes, and the heat radiating from the mark was enough to keep him warm in the cold building. He remembers the nervousness bubbling in the pit of his stomach, but he didn’t say a single word about what he was feeling to any of his escorts. At first, he had refused to believe it, because one who had committed the crime he had committed did not deserve happiness or forgiveness. However, he could not deny that his flame was near, and a slight spark of hope dimly burned in his chest.

The walk to the front doors of the current Overwatch HQ was relatively short, and the walk to where the organization would be awaiting him seemed like it lasted weeks. The closer he would get to where he was being escorted, the more intense the mark would glow and burn.

However, what happened next, he could never imagine happening, but he knew deep down he deserved it.

The very moment he was in the same room as every other member of Overwatch, having been led there by Genji, he found him.

When the archer had laid eyes on the cowboy in the room who was advancing towards them, his mark extinguished and he knew.

Then, the cowboy embraced his brother and his brother returned it. With how relaxed Genji looked in the man’s arms, Hanzo knew. Hanzo would never forget how Genji turned to him and said, “Brother, this is Jesse.” The tone Genji had used… he hadn’t ever heard it from his brother, but he knew what it meant. He knew the implications.

Right as his world shattered, he knew that he deserved every bit of pain he would ever feel from then on as payment for what he did to his brother. Genji deserved happiness, and Hanzo did not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep so this is short and it sucks but I had to get it out of the way and yeah sorry for like... 0 updates in forever lol


	3. anguish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah so it's going to start picking up after this chapter, and we'll actually see "real-time" events and dialogue.

He had been a part of Overwatch for almost three months now, and yet, it only felt like he had been there for mere days. Perhaps this was in part because of the pain he felt every time his soul mark burned, every time he saw Genji and the cowboy. The air would rush out of his lungs like he had been jabbed in his solar plexus, and his knees would threaten to buckle underneath him. His heart would painfully spasm, and he would be forced to excuse himself from where ever he was. Hanzo wouldn’t be able to breathe, much less focus past the pain.

Sometimes, he felt like his mark was mocking him, or asking him why he had not bonded yet. Regardless, it was still a reminder of what he did not have, of what was not his to take. But, he should still be happy. At least he had the honor of knowing his flame, and his brother was happy. He could not take any more from Genji, and so if he had to live like this, live in agony day after day, he would.

And so, with a pained grimace, he accepted his fate and reminded himself of how much worse it could be.

His secret wasn’t threatened until after he returned from a solo mission that was absolutely disastrous. Hanzo’s communicator had been shattered, the mission had taken much longer than it should have, and he was sure that his injuries were worse than they appeared. The intended two targets had turned out to have a rather… serious security force, and he had nearly been captured. He returned to the base exhausted, and insisted on being alone. Despite this, the merry trio of young ones decided that he deserved a “party” to “celebrate that he made it out alive of such a bad situation”, and he could not find it in himself to deny them.

It would not have been as bad of a time as he thought, save for the fact that the cowboy and his brother were there.

He lasted five minutes.

Genji made a joke. The cowboy laughed.

“Yer hilarious, darlin’,” he had told Genji, and those words felt so wrong to Hanzo. A tendril of darkness gripped his heart tight, and Hanzo choked.

Then, the cowboy kissed his brother.

Hanzo's world went black, and he woke up in the infirmary to a worried Angela checking him.

The worst part of it was when Angela looked over him and found that his injuries were healing correctly and there were no visible sources of pain. Despite this, she gave him a sleeping pill and he took it, unwilling to be awake while the memory was so clear in his mind. Right before he fell victim to a sleep that was sure to be as agonizing as the site of his bond loving someone else, a look of intense curiosity crossed her face, and then he swore he saw understanding dawn on her.

The doctor lifted his shirt to look at the dim light coming from his hip and she released a small gasp. The last thing he heard before he fall asleep was a silent and piteous, “Oh, Hanzo,” and he knew that his secret was out.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, here's the start of a new one! Please tell me if this idea is decent so far and if I should continue. Feel free to throw out any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and leave a comment if you have something you'd like to share and kudos if you liked it! (: Thanks for reading so far, guys! There should be much more to come!


End file.
